The State Provincial Office of Lapland, together with the Consumer Agency and Haaparanta’s Consumer Advisor, have conducted a food price comparison survey in Tornio and Haaparanta. The price comparison survey was done in four food retail stores: S-Market and K-Supermarket Ykkönen in Tornio, and Maxi ICA and Coop Extra in Haaparanta. The cheapest food basket was collected from Maxi ICA, and the most expensive from K-Supermarket.
The price level of Haaparanta’s Maxi ICA was three per cent cheaper than the average level in the area, and Tornio’s K-Supermarket Ykkönen was three per cent more expensive than the average level. On average, the price of the monthly food basket, when converted into Euros, was 350 Euros in ICA and 372 Euros in K-Supermarket. The price of the food basket in S-market was 355 Euros and in Coop Extra 362 Euros.
Not one store was the cheapest or most expensive on all products: each store had both cheap and expensive products. More of the cheap and fewer of the expensive products were found in ICA, and respectively more of the expensive and fewer of the cheap products were found in K-Supermarket. The comparison showed that large price differences could be found for single products. For example, chicken fillets, rice cakes and lettuce cost less than half the price in the cheapest store compared to the most expensive store.
The smallest price differences (4 %) were found in Royal Gala apples and Danone’s Activia yoghurts. The price difference for a litre of Arla Ingman's milk was 1-12 Euro cents. The milk was the cheapest in S-market (73 cents) and most expensive in Coop Extra (85 cents).
The price of butter (500 g) varied by a few cents between the stores, except in Coop Extra, where it cost 20 cents more than in the other stores.
Dan Sukker’s Sirkku sugar cubes and granulated sugar were cheaper in Finland than in Sweden, when in Sweden a 1 kg package of Pulmu sugar cubes was cheaper than the 750 g package in Finland. Sanding sugar was also cheaper in Sweden.
Ryvita Sesame ryecrisp was slightly cheaper in Finland than in Sweden. Also Vaasan Rapeat crispbread was cheaper in Finland compared to the Finn Crisp Original crispbread which is sold abroad. The cheapest Wasa Sport ryecrisp could be found in K-Supermarket and ICA, but in all stores the price variation of this product was small.
Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and Frosties were sold in bigger packages in Sweden than in Finland and were thus cheaper in their per kilogram prices. They were not taken into consideration in the price comparison due to their nonstandard package sizes. Also a few other Kellogg's products were cheaper in Sweden.
All five tea brands that were compared were 11 – 42 % cheaper in Sweden than in Finland. For example, Lipton Sun Tea (20 tea bags) was 1.34 – 1.38 Euros in Sweden, whereas in Finland it cost 2.20 - 2.30 Euros.
The prices of 1.5 litre bottles of Fanta Orange, Pepsi Cola and Pepsi Max Sugarfree were cheaper in Sweden than in Finland. Pepsi’s price per litre in Sweden was 0.71 – 0.78 Euros and in Finland 1.13 – 1.17 Euros.
The comparison was done between 22nd and 23rd April and consisted of 116 groceries, which were exactly the same brand products or products such as meat, vegetables and fruit, which could be compared against specific criteria.
When doing the price level calculations, the groceries were weighed based on the information received from the Central Statistical Office of Finland’s survey regarding household consumption. The average price of 360 Euros for a food basket was taken from the consumption survey’s yearly data. The numbers have been indexed to correspond to the price level in April 2008. The average price indicates a single household’s monthly expenditure on groceries and non-alcoholic beverages in Northern Finland.
The store specific tables of the price comparison (The State Provincial Office of Lapland) The press release with its tables